How I coped when my sister accused my boyfriend of rape, by Sugababes star Amelle

Last updated at 13:35 27 March 2008

Sugababe Amelle Berrabah and her boyfriend have spoken for the first time about the allegations that he raped her sister.

The 23-year-old singer immediately dumped Freddie Fuller after her younger sister Samiya claimed that he and three friends attacked her on a night out.

But her boyfriend maintained his innocence and took two lie detector tests in an attempt to win her back.

Eventually, inconsistencies began to emerge in her sister's account and the case was dropped. Samiya later said the incident must have been a "bad dream".

"We have been living like hermits for months," Berrabah told The Sun. "We're almost scared to go out - the funny looks, people looking down on us for something we hadn't done."

Fuller, who is from a traveller family, said that the hardest part of the experience had been the taunts. He was once called a "pikey rapist".

"I'm not exactly an angel, but I am no rapist," he said. "People were quick to judge me because of my background."

Even Berrabah initially took her sister's side. "When it started I was suddenly thinking, 'My boyfriend has raped her sister' and 'is the person I've loved this whole entire time lying to me and is a sicko weirdo?'"

She refused to see him and changed her phone number. "I've never been so down in my life," said Fuller. "I couldn't stick in England... I kept reading 'Date Rape Freddie Fuller' or 'Sexual Predator Freddie'. Every time I looked in the paper I thought, 'I can't handle this'."

But Samiya's account of the night in January 2007 was beginning to change. She had initially said that three of Fuller's friends had posted footage of her in a bathroom on video sharing website YouTube.

An accusation that they gang-raped her followed, and then Fuller's name was added to the list of attackers. "The police asked me to help with their inquiries," he said. "They hit me with the bomb that I was being accused of rape. It nearly killed me."

However, several of Samiya's claims did not check out. It transpired that Freddie was five miles away at his parents' house on the phone to the singer when the incident in Guildford was supposed to have happened.

Berrabah said that the revelations made her begin to doubt her sister's account. "I kept going back to her because I needed answers. But her story kept changing.

"I rang the lie detector guy. He said he was absolutely positive Freddie had done nothing wrong. I just hung up the phone and said to Sam that he had passed two lie detector tests. She turned around and said, 'I think I must have been dreaming then, Amelle'."

Fuller was so angry that he tried to press charges himself. "I rang the detective looking after the case and told him she admitted lying," he said. "I want to make a formal complaint.

"She is walking round like nothing has happened and people are still feeling sorry for her even though she withdrew the allegations. What has shocked me the most is that I actually liked her. I couldn't hate her more now. I never want to set eyes on her again."

The verbal abuse Fuller suffered has been even harder to bear because he has not been in good health - he nearly lost his arm in a machete attack over Christmas and has only recently recovered.

But Berrabah said that despite everything that has happened, she would not disown Samiya. "I still love her to bits, you know - she is still my sister. I know Freddie doesn't like to hear it."

Fuller added: "I didn't blame Amelle for sticking with her sister - they are family. But I just said that she should have known I would never be able to do something like that."